POLAND: Presidential elections at the background of collapsing Fourth Republic

Russophobia — grounding at the exclusive relationship with the Baltic states, Yushchenko’s Ukraine and Saakashvili’s Georgia — was the essence of Lech Kaczyński’s Eastern policy. If Jarosław is to become Polish President, the country would have to go through the same ole discords between the government and the President. Russia in this case would have to keep ignoring the person of Polish President, while resetting the relationship with Polish government.

Lech Kaczyński became the President of Poland in 2005, having won the current Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and immediately proclaimed the creation of the Fourth Republic. Collapse of this idea has led to the defeat of his twin-brother Jarosław at the following parliamentary elections. (You may find the more detailed information about it here).

Being the Minister of Justice (and the Polish Attorney General) at the Jerzy Buzek — current President of the European Parliament — government, he unfolded the fierce anti-corruption campaign in the country. Later he continued to follow this policy, having the absolute support of his twin-brother.

In order to acquaint Russian reader with the idea of the Fourth Republic we should explain what this new republic is to represent. The First Republic in history of Poland appeared in 1454, though it wasn’t a republic in a contemporary meaning of this word. It was a state established at the grounds of the so-called noble men — or, as the Poles call it — szlachta democracy. This republic existed until 1795 when the redivision of Poland started — this put an end to Poland as an independent state. The Second Republic appeared in 1918 as a result of the First World War and existed until the beginning of the Second World War. This period of the Polish history is tightly intertwined with the name of Marshal Józef Piłsudski — quite contradictive person, who, nevertheless, was proclaimed to be the national hero of Poland. Next state formation, located at the territory of modern Poland was the People’s Republic of Poland that existed since 1945 till 1989. Finally, the Third Republic of Polish history appeared in 1989 as a symbol of rupture with the socialistic political system of people’s democracy and the return to the roots of the Second Republic. This name is stipulated in the Polish constitution.

Kaczyński brothers, however, introduced new non-constitutional name of the Polish political system — the Fourth Republic. Having accused the Third Republic politicians of their dependence from the special services of socialistic Poland and the USSR — and also of the all-round corruption in the country — PiS Party¹ founded by the twins has proclaimed the Fourth Republic. It was to bring the decisive de-communization and severe lustration to life, and also to improve the role of Poland in Europe and the whole world. According to the brothers’ concept, path to these good purposes went through the relentless fight against corruption, which actually degenerated into the electoral TV show — many high-ranking officials, including Minister of Interior and Administration and the Deputy Prime Minister fell victims to it. Polish television actually carried out live broadcasting of how the Minister of Interior was handcuffed; unfortunately later he and his numerous colleagues were discharged. It became clear that PiS is fighting for the votes of the electorate, rather than against corruption itself. Polish voters met the idea of the Fourth Republic with a rebuff and on the 21st of October, 2007 PiS has lost the preterm parliamentary elections.

PiS leader and today’s presidential candidate also didn’t evoke much enthusiasm among the Poles. As the "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" has venomously noted, "Small, stout and constantly grumbling, Jarosław Kaczyński hardly looks like a national tribune". Polish voters have finally understood that the fight against corruption was a mere pre-election trick of the government, the criminal lawsuits were framed-up exclusively for the political matters and that none was safe in a situation like that. Public opinion polls have indicated the 10-year-long decline of the PiS popularity. Since that moment the elections returns were predetermined. Polish media dubbed that lame Kaczyński’s step to be the "self-inflicted wound".

In the ideological sense, current Polish presidential elections repeat the Seim elections of 2007. Again it’s all about the clash of PiS and the Civic Platform and again it is the common voters who are to choose between the anti-utopia of the Fourth Republic and the right-wing liberal rhetoric of Tusk and Komorowski. Yet again it is Kaczyński to lead the PiS party — though, it’s Jarosław instead of Lech this time. But mind that the twin-brother is not just the photographic copy of his late brother, he also confesses the same sort of intolerance and he is likely to disunite the country just the same way Lech did — and in case of becoming a President he would also be a President not for all of the Poles.

Quite suddenly it was Professor Władysław Bartoszewski — foreign policy aide of Donald Tusk — who stood up against Jarosław Kaczyński. This man is well known both in Poland and the rest of the world. He is 85 years old now, he was an Auschwitz concentration camp prisoner and fought at the side of Polish resistance movement; in 1952 in the socialistic Poland he was sentenced to 8 years of imprisonment for the espionage but in 1955 he was released and rehabilitated. Bartoszewski was decorated with the superior awards of Poland and also with the "Righteous among the nations" medal and diploma for rescuing the Jews during the Hitler’s occupation of Poland issued by the Yad Vashem Institute of Israel. He was the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs twice and, without doubt, he "speaks" the diplomatic language quite well. Nevertheless, Prime Minister aide considered it appropriate to say that Jarosław Kaczyński can hardly make a decent President, as long as he was incapable even of uniting his own family (PiS chair is single), let alone the whole country, while the only practical experience he has is the breeding of fur animals (implying to the favorite Kaczyński’s cat). Bartoszewski considers the Jarosław’s consent to bury his brother at Wawel — burial vault of the Polish kings — to be a mistake. "If I’m awarded with the order of the Pope Gregory that doesn’t mean that I am to be buried in Vatican, does it?" — ironically remarked Prime Minister’s aide.

Despite the clearly pro-American vector of the foreign policy of Kaczyński brothers, Americans themselves were not exactly keen about them. After PiS defeat at the Parliamentary elections in 2007, New York Times wrote the following: "They (Kaczyński brothers — author’s note) have spoken in the name of national wounds and sentiments, caused by the very tragic history of Poland in the 20th century, but the problem was that they often behaved themselves as though the very history was an exclusive property of their party...They’ve nourished the climate of accusations and suspicions that separated Poland from its natural European partners and alienated the younger generation, aimed at the better future and the world surrounding them".

Today’s Presidential elections in Poland are, in fact, the second round of the parliamentary elections of 2007, given the new political background that emerged after the airplane catastrophe near Smolensk. Mythologized image of the perished Polish President is to serve as the battering ram that is to crush the gates of Presidential Palace for Jarosław Kaczyński. Warsaw analysts name the 10th of April, 2010 to be the Polish 9\11, and there’s not a grain of exaggeration in that. Lech Kaczyński who was destined to fail at the presidential elections may, however, gain the posthumous victory, having passed the banner of presidency to his twin-brother. Late President often annoyed Poles with his unintelligible manner of speech and the clumsy behavior at the European political circles. Today, however, PiS, which lost its best members at the airplane accident near Smolensk, may become — no matter how paradoxical will it sound — the symbolical beneficiary of this tragedy.

Kościół² attitude to the presidential candidates is the important element of the electioneering. For the Catholic Poland this is a circumstance of no small significance. "Church refers the Civic Platform, which Bronisław Komorowski belongs to, to the liberals and for the Polish clergy liberalism is something devilish" — says ksiądz³ Andrzej Luter, famous theologian and publicist. This is probably the only explanation why Komorowski, former tutor of the theological seminary, member of Catholic Community, father of a large family and a relative to the former Polish primate doesn’t enjoy the support of the priesthood. For some high-ranking Polish priests even Kaczyński is not reliable enough. Archbishop Józef Michalik, Polish Episcopacy Conference chair — who become notorious in the 90s for his slogan "Let the Catholics vote for Catholics and the Jews would vote for Jews" — has chosen quite exotic person of Marek Jurek as an object of his pastor’s support (Polish polls credit him with less than 1% of the votes). Few years ago Jurek became one of the most quoted Polish politicians, having said that the children have to be flogged. At that, former functionary of ZChN⁴ reasoned that statement with his own example: "My father used to flog me and that benefitted me a lot".

However, all these peculiarities of the Polish national politics interest us so far as they may help us to define the character of post-election relationship between Poland and the Russian Federation. It’s quite obviously, that from this standpoint, Bronisław Komorowski — speaking diplomatically — is somewhat more preferable than Jarosław Kaczyński. As he repeatedly mentioned, Jarosław is definitely to keep following the policy of his brother. His brother, in his turn, was the successor of Marshal Piłsudski. Despite the Polish NATO and EU membership, the main vector of his foreign policy was always aimed at the East. Mind, that it were the ideas of "inter-marine dominion" and "Prometheus mission", inherited from Piłsudski, that prevailed in this direction. "Inter-marine dominion" is the realization of the ancient Polish dream of creating the Great Poland "stretching from one sea to another", i. e. from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Regarding "Prometheus mission", we may just say that Piłsudski-style Kaczyński brothers’ obsession to enlighten the Eastern neighbors assumed quite a morbid character. Russophobia — grounding at the exclusive relationship with the Baltic states, Yushchenko’s Ukraine and Saakashvili’s Georgia — was the essence of Lech Kaczyński’s Eastern policy. If Jarosław is to become Polish President, the country would have to go through the same ole discords between the government and the President. Russia in this case would have to keep ignoring the person of Polish President, while resetting the relationship with Polish government.

Actually Kaczyński’s chances are quite scarce. Recent public opinion polls indicate that 50% of the population support Komorowski and just 38% support Kaczyński. However, during the last weeks the gap was closing and the second round is still quite possible. Fortunately, according to the Polish constitution, it is the Prime Minister who is to shape foreign policy of the country, while President just takes a certain participation in its fullfilment — the fact that ambitious Lech Kaczyński quite often forgot about. Thus, Polish presidential elections are of no fateful significance for both Poles and the Russo-Polish relationship. But still, it’s much more pleasant to deal with the responsible and adequate President of Poland like Komorowski rather than with yet another obsessive Piłsudski-minded leader, perceiving himself to be the Prometheus, bringing the light into the "darkness of eastern spaces".

By Gregory Tinsky

¹ Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice).
² Polish Catholic priesthood.
³ Catholic priest in Poland.
⁴ Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe (Christian National Union).